After training at Crossfit Providence this past winter and playing rugby in the spring, my training goals have been realigned to be an incredibly strong endurance athlete. Rugby matches are two 40 minute halves, quite a change from the 2 second hammer throw that I used to train for. Overall strength and endurance are Crossfit goals, but I found the system a little too chaotic and random for my personal training.

So I’m going back to a system I’ve used on my own and the system my high school weight training was based on: Westside Barbell’s Conjugate System. Although Westside has developed the system from an old Soviet training club, they have mastered it and continue to produce the strongest athletes in the world.

Louie Simmons, 65 years old, Founder of Westside Barbell

In a nutshell there are four unique workouts per week

Max Effort Lower Body

Max Effort Upper Body

Dynamic Effort Lower Body

Dynamic Effort Upper Body

Each week a different exercise is cycled through trying to establish a new max. A new max every week. Crazy. But the goal is to maintain the highest level of strength year round, with dynamic days to increase power and explosiveness.

My running will work into the system in a similar fashion

Two days of sprints

Two days of long runs

Because I have minimal experience with long runs, I will experiment with which days of the week (based on lifting days) to do each run.